The Friday Five: February 22nd, 2019

t did not take long for tensions to rise at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, as Jarrell Miller would shove Anthony Joshua at the start of the press conference for their June 1st title fight.

The unified world heavyweight champion would somewhat take it in stride, but would match the aggression of the Brooklyn born boxer, nearly inciting a brawl between the boxers, their camps, and Madison Square Garden security.

While it would not end up in a “Gulotta-Bowe” level of brawl, both fighters would spend the rest of the press conference sniping and insulting one another, even referencing their mothers, as both men would attempt to get a psychological edge four months prior to fight night.

Miller, once things were calmed down, would explain that he is more than ready for the challenge of Joshua, expounding on a stalker-like obsession with the unified champion, as he made Joshua his cellphone wall-paper, and admitted thoughts of beating the former Olympic gold medalist fill his mind at a constant basis.

In the aftermath of watching his friend fall in 26 seconds, Daniel Cormier made it known that if Francis Ngannou wants to go, he’s ready for him

“Every time you see something like that, the emotions tell you you go get it back, you go make it right,” an emotional Cormier said Sunday night on ESPN’s SportsCenter of Ngannou’s win over Cain Velasquez. “But Francis Ngannou, who didn’t ask for a fight, maybe later he will, and if that’s something we decide we want to do, then that’s what I’ll do.

“I know how hard he trained,” the UFC heavyweight champion said of his American Kickboxing Academy teammate. “I know how well he prepared for this fight, and for it to end the way that it did was very unfortunate, was very hard to watch, I wasn’t able to get to Phoenix. It’s sad, it makes me very sad that I’m not there right now, that he lost in this way.”

Following the announcement of his next fight against Anthony Crolla, WBO and WBA lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko would do an Instagram Live Q&A with his fans.

When asked about his upcoming challenge against the former champion, Lomachenko lamented that he truly wanted a unification fight.

“It’s better to fight with (Richard) Commey than Crolla. Richard has belt at least and I have goal — to win all the belts,” said Lomachenko.

Commey was the original opponent for Lomachenko, but due to a hand injury suffered earlier this year when he defeated Isa Chaniev for the vacant IBF title.

Lomachenko looks at his fight against Crolla as a showcase for what he was unable to do against Jorge Lianres and Jose Pedraza, due to a shoulder injury he suffered against Linares.

“After my last two fights they said that Loma began to lose some position. But listen, guys, it was my third weight class. And by the way I didn’t use the right hook against Pedraza because of shoulder,” Lomachenko said.

“My goal is to collect all four belts in one weight class and retire. What should I do next? Boxing is sport for me. It’s interesting to challenge champions. Who should I fight with, when I become undisputed champion? I am ready to retire even at the age of 33 years. For the first time I wore gloves when I was 5 and after that my entire life has been boxing. But everything has an end.”

ONE Championship has loaded the card for their Japanese debut on March 31st, as both Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson will be a part of the “A New Era” card.

The event set for the Ryogoku Kokugikan on March 31st that will see four first-round matches in the Flyweight Tournament, one of which will see the former UFC flyweight champion, Johnson, make his ONE debut against Yaua Wakamatsu.

Also on the card in the Singapore based company’s Tokyo debut is former Bellator and UFC lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez, who will face off against Timofy Nastyukhin in the only non tournament or title fight on the nine-fight card.

Four titles will be on the line on March 31st, including Angela Lee and Jin Nan Xiong for the strawweight title, Aung La N Sang and Ken Hasegawa for the middleweight title.